Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I must express my complete dissatisfaction at the way the Minister has dealt with his speaking slot this morning. The whole purpose of this session is that he be accountable to Members with regard to the vaccine programme. That is the purpose of these sessions every Thursday morning. It is entirely unacceptable that the Minister would give away more than half of his time to a Government backbencher. I put it to him that this is not accountability, it is avoiding accountability. We need a ruling from the Chair on that. It is not acceptable that this would happen ever again.

There is a real problem with the Minister overpromising. He talks a lot about the vaccine programme when in the media but he talks very little about the actual management of Covid. There is no opportunity for accountability on the announcement the Government made earlier in the week, which raises huge questions. There are credibility issues, and many of the proposals from the Government on quarantining are just nonsense. We must have accountability in that regard also. The restrictions are to be extended until 5 March and yesterday the Minister was asked what will happen then. His response was that we would have the vaccine. We will not have the vaccines. A very small proportion of the population will be vaccinated by 5 March. The Minister is playing two sides of this. He is avoiding accountability in respect of the management of Covid and on the roll-out of the vaccine.

The Minister is hugely overpromising. Everybody accepts that there are serious problems with suppliers and with pinning down supply. AstraZeneca has been a disgrace in the way it is failing to meet the terms of contracts it signed. Other pharma companies are not delivering on what they promised and there is uncertainty about aspects of different vaccines, not only in supply but also in efficacy. The Minister needs to be upfront about this.

He must be frank and level with people about what they are rather than overpromising, because that gives them a false sense of security. That is what happened in the run up to Christmas, when there was an overselling of the vaccine. It contributed to people letting down their guard and we know the consequences of that. I ask the Minister to be upfront and frank with people, to give us the honest figures and to stop overpromising.

We are not getting daily updates. We are getting weekly updates, and that is not sufficient. We asked for a daily update on the number of vaccines delivered to this country and the number administered. I again ask the Minister to give a commitment to do that. What is the exact position relating to the two cohorts that are the priority, which the Minister made promises about last week and which have not been delivered? How many nursing home residents and staff have still to get the first dose? When does he expect all nursing home residents and staff to be completed with the second dose? I have the same questions with regard to front-line healthcare workers. How many of them have received their first dose? At this point, when does the Minister expect all of them to be completed with the second dose?

I also have a question relating to disability long-term care facilities. It is good that residents aged over 65 have been vaccinated in those facilities, but I cannot understand why staff have not been vaccinated. Why would the Minister not have the staff vaccinated, just as there is a plan to vaccinate staff in nursing homes?

I would appreciate it if he could answer those questions. If he does not have time, can he refer back to us as early as possible with the exact figures?

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